Can the war in Ukraine be 'frozen?' – DW – 08/15/2025
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Int'l Business Times
42 minutes ago
- Int'l Business Times
Europeans Try To Stay On The Board After Ukraine Summit
For European leaders, the absence of a Ukraine deal at the summit between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump has at least one upside: They have not yet been completely sidelined in a key strategic moment for the Continent's future. "It's good news that there was no deal, for both Ukraine and the Europeans," said Alberto Alemanno, a European law professor at the HEC university in Paris. He noted a serious risk that "a new European security map" would be drawn up while Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and Europe's leaders watched from the sidelines. Europe found itself shut out of the summit in Alaska, and tried to weigh in ahead of the meeting with a flurry of calls and urgent meetings between leaders ahead of time. On Saturday, the French presidency said the leaders of Britain, France and Germany would host a video call Sunday for their so-called "coalition of the willing" to discuss steps towards peace in Ukraine. The meeting would come a day before Zelensky travels to Washington for talks with Trump -- five months after the Ukrainian leader was ambushed with a televised scolding during his previous Oval Office visit. European leaders also proposed a three-way summit between Zelensky, Putin and Trump. But it remains unlikely that Russia, hit by 18 rounds of European sanctions since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, is ready for any thaw in its glacial relations with the bloc. Putin made his stance clear on Friday, warning Ukraine and European countries to "not create any obstacles" and not "make attempts to disrupt this emerging progress through provocation or behind-the-scenes intrigues". "Clearly, what Vladimir Putin's intention is, is to keep Europeans out and Americans in," said James Nixey, a specialist in Russian foreign policy. After a debriefing with Trump and with Zelensky on Saturday, European leaders held their own video call on their next steps. Moscow "cannot have a veto" on Ukraine joining the European Union or NATO, they said in a statement signed by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. Macron later called for increased pressure on Russia until "a solid and durable peace" had been achieved. But since the beginning of the war, European leaders "have never engaged with Putin", said Alemanno. "And all of a sudden they have to do so, without knowing exactly what are the terms of engagement," he said. "So they're a bit stuck." The risk is all the greater since Trump has clearly indicated in recent weeks that he is ready to walk away from the war, despite his campaign promise to end it within "24 hours". "Each morning when I wake up, my first thought is that we have to re-arm ourselves even faster," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told the Jyllands-Posten newspaper on Saturday.
DW
4 hours ago
- DW
Germany updates: Merz backs possible Putin-Zelenskyy meeting – DW – 08/16/2025
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and other European leaders have signed a joint statement backing a meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. DW has more. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has backed a potential meeting between the presidents of Ukraine, Russia and the United States. In other news, a prominent German lawmaker has made the case for Switzerland to join the European Union, particularly in light of the heavy tariffs placed on the Alpine country by the United States. Meanwhile, a man suspected of sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl at the Rulantica water park in Germany has been detained in Romania, according to German lawmaker Omid Nouripour has suggested that Switzerland could become a member of the European Union. "The German government should offer Switzerland the opportunity to quickly deepen cooperation, up to turbo membership in the EU," Nouripour, who is vice president of the German lower house of parliament (the Bundestag), told the German DPA news agency. "If our Swiss friends want to move closer to the European Union in light of new times, Germany should actively support this," he added. US President Donald Trump has imposed a hefty 39% tariff on imports from Switzerland, far higher than the 15% tariff on most products from the EU. Swiss economic associations have claimed this has put tens of thousands of jobs at risk. With a population of 9 million, Switzerland relies heavily on exports, with the US being the most important market, accounting for 18% in 2024. "For centuries, the Swiss have maintained a tradition of strict neutrality," said Nouripour. "However, the recent tariff dispute with Donald Trump painfully shows how vulnerable smaller states are when they are left to fend for themselves. Politically neutral, economically global — That no longer works in the new era." "From a Swiss perspective, the EU may not be the best choice, but it is by far the more reliable one," he said. For now, EU membership seems unlikely, with Switzerland's strongest party by votes, the right-wing populist Swiss People's Party (SVP), strictly against the notion. A 31-year-old man suspected of sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl at the Rulantica water park in Germany has been detained in Romania, police said in a statement. "Following intensive police investigations, the 31-year-old suspect was arrested in Romania on Friday evening," the statement read. "No further details about the arrest in Romania are available at this time," the statement added. Authorities had been searching for the Romanian national via an international arrest warrant. He is accused of taking the child from the Rulantica water park in Rust, near the French border, into a nearby wooded area last Saturday and abusing her. The man, who also lives in the region, allegedly left the child alone after the assault. She was discovered after being missing for around two hours. Police said surveillance footage identified the suspect. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz joined French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in backing a three-way meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russia's Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. The support for such a meeting comes after a US-Russia summit failed to yield any results as Trump and Putin met in Alaska. Merz, Macron, Starmer and Von der Leyen signed a statement supporting Ukrainian presence at any future US-Russia summits and insisted on maintaining pressure on Moscow, including through sanctions. The statement was also signed by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The European leaders also insisted Russia "cannot have a veto against Ukraine's pathway to EU and NATO." "It will be up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory. International borders must not be changed by force." Merz posted on X: "We welcomed President Trump's efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine, end Russia's war of aggression, and achieve just and lasting peace. Ukraine can count on our unwavering solidarity as we work towards a peace that safeguards Ukraine's and Europe's vital security interests." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video from the Bonn online news team and welcome to our weekend edition of this blog covering current affairs in Germany. Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz, along with other European leaders, has backed a possible meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Follow up on this and more news, videos and analyses on the latest in Germany this weekend.
Local Germany
4 hours ago
- Local Germany
European leaders back Putin-Trump-Zelensky meeting
A statement, signed by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, insisted on maintaining pressure on Russia until peace was achieved, including through sanctions. The European leaders also insisted Moscow "cannot have a veto" on Ukraine joining the European Union or NATO. Russia has made clear it will not tolerate Kyiv's membership of the defence alliance. But the leaders said they were "ready to work ... towards a trilateral summit with European support". Friday's Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska ended without the US president extracting concrete commitments from Putin to halt Russia's invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022. "We will continue to strengthen sanctions and wider economic measures to put pressure on Russia's war economy until there is a just and lasting peace," said the European joint statement. European leaders had been uneasy over Trump's diplomatic outreach to Putin, arguing that Zelensky should have been involved in the Alaska summit. In a separate statement, Starmer praised Trump's efforts as bringing "us closer than ever before to ending Russia's illegal war in Ukraine". Macron, writing on X, cautioned against what he said was Russia's "well-documented tendency to not keep its own commitments". He called for any future peace deal to have "unbreakable" security guarantees. He also argued for increased pressure on Russia until "a solid and durable peace" had been achieved. Advertisement The European leaders welcomed what they called "security guarantees" made by Trump without giving details. A diplomatic source told AFP that Trump had offered Ukraine guarantees similar to -- but separate from -- NATO membership. "Strong security guarantees that protect Ukrainian and European vital security interests are essential," European Commission chief von der Leyen said on X. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban -- who has friendly ties with both Trump and Putin -- hailed the summit. "For years we have watched the two biggest nuclear powers dismantle the framework of their cooperation and shoot unfriendly messages back and forth. That has now come to an end. Today the world is a safer place than it was yesterday," Orban said on X.
